Lampyridae
by pedomellonaminno
Summary: Because I finally watched "Serenity" yesterday, I had to write this. I'll put up a clever title and summary when I think of them, but this'll do for now. Post BDM for Firefly, so spoilers for that, kind of, and some unknown time after s2 of DW.


Rose burst back into reality with considerably more momentum than she liked, and nearly ran into a giant spike that had very recently been thrust with no little force through the hull of the ship whose bridge she currently occupied. With a graceful sidestep that told of many other such necessary maneuvers, she spun off some of her excess inertia and ended with her back to the wall she had been facing on her entrance to this universe.

And that was when she caught sight of the blonde man whose garishly patterned shirt was made terrible by the blood staining it. Rose breathed a whisper that was something like a cross between swearing and praying, and began to reprogram the wide, watch-like device on her left wrist as she moved toward him. She didn't have much hope of his being alive, because a spike similar to the one that she'd nearly impaled herself on was sticking through him, but she couldn't leave him, even dead, to whatever horrid menace she could hear coming. She grasped the man's hand tightly and hit the final buttons, hoping that she wouldn't bring the spike with her.

The return to reality was considerably more difficult than it had been for a while, so she figured she'd at least managed to bring the man with her, but the nothing that indicated she was traveling turned into the chaos that meant she'd arrived back at Torchwood. The medics that were always on hand quickly set upon the obviously injured man and Rose had just enough left in her to hear one of them call for a stretcher- that was important somehow- before fainting straight into the arms of one of the techs who happened to be standing just behind her.

* * *

Rose woke considerably more lucid than she usually did in a bed that the medical staff probably had permanently reserved for her. She sat up and glanced around and discovered the blond man in the bed next to her, clearly unconscious but obviously alive, if they were in the same room.

Apparently the medical staff had learned from the last time she'd come back with a injured partner and injured herself- she'd gotten up and used the pole that held the IV bags to support her as her broken but newly casted leg hadn't been able to in search of the partner she wasn't sure had survived. Her attending physician had either been monitoring her very closely, or just had really good timing, because she walked in just as Rose was reassuring herself of her roommate's status.

The concern must have been evident on Rose's face, because Dr. Andrews' first words were about his condition. "He's actually in better shape than you are, aside from the formerly gaping hole in his stomach, as he appears to have been eating and sleeping regularly, unlike someone else in this room who we've had to put in a medically induced coma- again-just so she'll sleep occasionally." Rose shrugged slightly sheepishly but otherwise ignored the remonstration from the older woman.

"How is he, though? Was there anything to indicate who he is?"

"The wound would have been fatal if he had been anywhere besides a first-class hospital well-equipped for dealing with injuries like his. Had he been wherever it was you found him for even a few more minutes, he wouldn't have survived. Fortunately for him, somebody came along and brought to him to the very people who could save his life without asking questions. And no, he doesn't have any sort of identification. We've had him in a coma like you to give him time to heal enough to be awake, which he should be shortly. He probably won't appreciate being conscious, but he might appreciate being alive."

Rose heaved a sigh of relief and flopped back against her pillow, slightly miffed that they'd knocked her out again but mostly glad to know that the man next to her would wake up and that she could take him to whoever probably thought he was dead. She bolted upright again as the man mumbled something. Despite being tangled in the bedsheets, she was at his side before Dr. Andrews. She took his hand gently, noticing the ring on the fourth finger, and leaned her head down toward his. Most of what he said was unintelligible, but she was fairly sure he said something about leaves, and positive he'd said the name "Zoe" several times.

Rose assumed Zoe was the wife who'd put the ring on that finger, and vowed right then to get this mystery man back to his wife. And then she remembered that she knew nothing about him, and revised her promise to help him get back home as long as he wasn't the kind of person she had to stop from taking over various places with rather alarming regularity.

"I'll let you off enforced bed rest, but you are not going anywhere besides home until that man is ready to take back where he belongs," Dr. Andrews said from the doorway. Rose knew a compromise when she heard one, and nodded gratefully. "Page me when he wakes up completely." She nodded again, and turned back to the man she'd dragged across universes to save his life.

* * *

Rose spent the next several hours alternately listening to mumbles that were sometimes more audible than others- he mentioned several other names in between a lot of things she didn't understand, but Zoe was repeated the most often- and talking to him when he was quiet, about anything she could think of. She told him about herself, about her family, about the planets she'd seen and the times she'd been to.

Dr. Andrews brought her a large glass of water and several pills at one point, but otherwise let her be. When trying to condense her life into something simple enough to talk about got too tiring, she began humming and patting his hand occasionally, as she could tell he was starting to wake up properly and didn't want him to have to do it alone- it wasn't particularly pleasant.

"Hey, it's okay," she said as he tried to sit up. "Stay still. You had a particularly close brush with death, and now that we've brought you back from it, I'd like to keep you here so we can get you back to Zoe in one piece."

"How do you know about my wife?" he rasped.

"You've been muttering in your sleep for the last several hours about her, and the ring kind of gives away who she is to you. What about you? What's your name?"

"Wash. Hoban Washburne,"

"I'm going to get you home, Wash. You just get yourself better for Zoe and all those other people you've been muttering about. I'll get you home."


End file.
